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I'd looked at their website, and I could find no information about the plan I just bought into. So I spent hours on the phone instead. This afternoon, eventually I got forwarded to someone who gave me the bad news. Although I picked the only available plan that included my doctors. Now, I have found out that they are not exactly covered. Before the insurer will pay a dime, I have to meet a $6000 deductible. I could choose different doctors, they told me, and then my primary doctor would be covered from day 1 (except for a $10 co-pay). Of course, if I need to see a specialist more than twice, even if I select from their preferred list, I have to meet a $3000 deductible before they will cover any additional visits.

I do have Rheumatoid Disease, so yeah, I need to see a specialist several times a year.

Then, I looked for a rheumatologist on the preferred list. And oh joy, just one practice. The head doctor at that practice is the same one who was running the place when I went there. I have never been treated so badly at a doctor's office. No one, including the doctors, showed a shred of respect for the patients.

So, all things considered, I'm just going to have pay the $6000. That's in addition to $541 a month in premium.

And this, folks, is a 'silver' plan! But, it is here in SC, where our governor refused to set up a state exchange.

Until they start charging for it, I read articles from The State online. I don't subscribe to the newspaper because it is largely a waste of money, in my opinion. This afternoon, I looked, and found this article:

You can read it yourself, but there was one sentence that leaped out at me.

" Lawmakers and state and local election officials have for years ignored the 1970 law that set the 1,500 per-voter standard, Bowers and others said."

The article goes on to explain that the problem is that complying with the law would be very expensive. And the voice in my head shouted "WHAT THE F***!"

They are breaking the law because complying with it would be expensive! I wonder if the rest of us can get in on that deal. If it costs too much money, it's okay to ignore the law. The State didn't seem to have any problem with this, and the legislature is apparently talking about changing the law to match what has been happening. So apparently, it's okay.

I did not vote yesterday. I am not really disabled, so I did not think I qualified to apply for an absentee ballot. I also don't drive, so I had to make arrangements in advance to get to my polling place.

When I got there, the line wrapped around the building. Now, when things are working well, if the space inside fills up, and can be seen from the outer doorway, that means that the wait will be over an hour. There were so many people there are 9:15 am, that I estimated at least a three hour wait. I could not do that. It wasn't a matter of not having the time, it was just that I cannot stand up for that long.

I called my local Democratic Party helpline, but I could only leave a message, and they never called back.

Just now, I saw in the local news that state law required that my voting district requires a minimum of 22 voting machines (although I don't think I have ever seen that many). Yesterday, it seems that there were only three machines working. This same kind of problem was reported all over Richland county.

No one in state government has an answer, but I do live in the bluest county in South Carolina. I cannot help but wonder if this was a deliberate attempt to keep as many of us from voting as possible.